Lily Baldwin

BIO (full length version)

BIO (full length version)

A formidable talent working in NYC, Berlin and LA, Baldwin is known for her compelling, intricate narrative forms. As director, and frequent performer, she combines her penchant for dance and film to craft visceral stories with stylized dreamscapes.

Baldwin's films are featured on The Criterion Channel, Netflix, Filmmaker Magazine, NOWNESS, Vimeo Staff Pick, Short of the Week and Fandor. Her works have screened at all major festivals including Sundance, SXSW, and the Berlinale and have been exhibited around the world at galleries and museums including Lincoln Center, the V&A Museum, Miami Art Basel, Carnegie Hall, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and the Detroit Institute of the Arts. Short of the Week cites, in her work, “Editing, cinematography and music merge with dance to create a fully realized universe, filled with equal doses of longing, unease and wonder. Like Lynch, she understands that all of these tools are necessary to portray our complex inner lives."

THROUGH YOU, Baldwin’s VR project co-directed with Saschka Unseld, premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. It was a recipient of the 2016 Sundance Institute New Frontier / Jaunt VR Residency and the The New York Times noted “Movement and gesture take possession of the viewer in a way that has never been replicated.”

Her psychological thriller SWALLOWED (Criterion Collection, Palm Springs ShortFest, Women of Cinefamily with Chris Kraus, LAFF) premiered in the omnibus feature COLLECTIVE: UNCONSCIOUS (SXSW, BAMcinemaFest). The New York Times called it “an extraordinary and scary short film by Lily Baldwin, whose work has a visceral power similar to Cronenberg’s.”

Previous work includes SLEEPOVER LA (SXSW, Berlinale EFM), A JUICE BOX AFTERNOON (Lincoln Center, Dance on Camera Tour), SEA MEADOW (SXSW, Academy-Qualifying theatrical run) and MISTY COPELAND, a documentary for Glamour’s Women of the Year Awards. She choreographed the music video SUTPHIN BOULEVARD by Blood Orange / Dev Hynes and the opening event at Times Square with Arto Lindsay for PERFORMA 09. Her recent installation QUICK SLICE was showcased at New York Live Arts alongside acclaimed performer Sascha Waltz.

As a dancer, Baldwin performed with The Metropolitan Opera Ballet in LES TROYENS and SACRE DU PRINTEMPS, Trisha Brown Dance Company, Faye Driscoll, Netta Yerushalmy, Doug Varone, David Neumann, Noemie La France, among other NYC companies. She danced with David Byrne on his EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS WILL HAPPEN TODAY World Tour with Brian Eno, choreographed by Annie B. Parson and Robbinschilds, and in its documentary RIDE RISE ROAR (SXSW). Her work with Judith Weston has inspired her acting, most notably in Frank Mosley’s PARTHENON alongside Tallie Medel (INSIDE AMY SCHUMER, BROAD CITY, BROOKLYNIFICATION).

Baldwin was named by ShortsHD as one of “The Top 10 Emerging Directors to Watch” and by Independent Magazine as one of the “10 Filmmakers to Watch.” She has participated in the Screenwriter’s Colony Fellowship on Nantucket, Oculus and Kaleidescope VR’s incubation program DevLab, and Independent Film Week’s Emerging Storytellers. She has taught seminars at Jacksonville University, University of Michigan, and the School of Visual Arts. Additionally she was a juror for the 2019 Tribeca Film Institute's Our City, My Story program, the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival’s Storyscapes Competition, and the 2018 World VR Forum. Recently she spoke at Jacob’s Pillow for their curated series PillowTalks about her breakthrough work in VR, coming full circle since her high school years when she was a dancer on scholarship in their Modern Traditions program.

Upcoming projects include TV series UNDERAGED, an unapologetic, uncensored, immersive look inside youth culture with Ventureland; TERRAIN, a docu-dream VR installation; and STORIES OF THE STALKED, a podcast with Ventureland, Audible, and Feast Collective.